Jesse Pomeroy was Boston’s infamous teenage fiend and murderer. His crimes, committed in the late 1800s, were so shocking that they landed the teenage boy in a life sentence of solitary confinement where he became an object of curiosity and a figure to be pitied as well as feared.
Assault and Torture
Jesse Pomeroy’s deadly career began at age eleven when he was accused of assaulting and torturing young boys. According to some accounts, he would strip the little boys, tie them up, and whip them. He was placed in reformatory school and was then released on parole a year and a half later. [1]
Little Katie Curran
In 1874, ten-year-old Katie Curran disappeared while running errands for her mother. At first her parents thought the little girl had become lost and they went to the local police station to report her disappearance.
A few short months after the child’s disappearance:
“Some workmen who were engaged in excavating the cellar of the building No. 327 Broadway made a terrible discovery. This building was formerly occupied by Mrs. Pomeroy and her son Jesse and an older son… In removing a stone, one of the workmen named McGinnis struck his pick into a heap, when out rolled a human skull.”
It was the little body of Katie.
Jesse was fourteen-years-old and would never be taken to trial for this murder. [2]
Little Horace Mullen
Shortly after murdering Katie, Jesse found a new victim. This time it was a four or five-year-old boy named Horace Mullen.
Jesse took the boy out into the marshland and butchered him with a knife. In his frenzy, he nearly decapitated the child.
The little boy’s body was found by a clam digger the next day. [3]
Confession
After the discovery of the body of Horace Mullen, police suspected Jesse because of his previous acts of torturing little boys. They took him to the morgue, showed him the child’s body, and Jesse immediately confessed to the murder.
Later on, Jesse Pomeroy confessed that he had killed 27 other children. In fact, when police began digging around his mother’s former home, they found the skeletons of several other children. He was never tried for these other murders. [4]
Sentenced to Solitary Confinement
Because of Jesse’s age, the state of Massachusetts was not willing to hang a fourteen-year-old boy. Instead, it was decided that the best punishment for the teenager was to remove him from the outside world entirely. He was given a life sentence in solitary confinement with no interaction allowed between himself and any of the other prisoners. [5]
His Only Visitor
Jesse Pomeroy was allowed only one visitor. For nearly forty years, his mother would come to the prison to sit and talk to Jesse through his cell bars.
Mrs. Pomeroy believed that her son was innocent of the crime of murder:
“My son is a martyr. They [the police] told him that I was accused of his crimes — that if he didn’t confess to them, I would have to go to prison. He confessed to save me because he loves me.” [6]
He Read a lot of Books
After spending 33 years in solitary confinement, it was reported that Jesse had read 80,000 books. In other words, he had read every book in the prison library plus about 500 books that belonged to the prison’s chaplain.
He also spent his time learning Latin, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. [7]
Attempted Escape
It had been reported that throughout his time in solitary confinement, Jesse had made numerous attempts at escape. The most notable escape attempt was in 1913 when he managed to saw three of the bars from off his door.
While walking through the prison corridor, he caught the prison cat’s attention. The cat began to meow and a prison attendant saw Jesse, told him to throw up his hands, and placed Jesse back into solitary confinement. [8]
Baffled Alienists
Alienists (psychologists) could not decide what was wrong with Jesse Pomeroy. Some believed that the murders and torture of children were a youthful mistake, and a mistake he must have outgrown in all of his years in solitude. Other alienists believed that Jesse was a dangerous predator, unable to feel true human emotions, such as love and compassion. [9]
The End
After forty-one years in solitary confinement, Jesse was taken to an asylum. There he spent the remainder of his days, allowed to interact with other inmates, until his death in 1932. He was seventy-two-years-old and had died of a heart attack. [10]
